The COVID-19 pandemic represented a major public health challenge and had serious economic and social impacts on origin, transit and destination countries, as well as on migrant workers and their families and on businesses and their operations. This informative note presents policy options in order to ensure comprehensive social protection for migrant workers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Spain offers universal access to basic health services. Beyond the most favourable scheme enjoyed by EU nationals covered by EU common legislation, all migrants staying in Spain, irrespective of legal status, have access to the basic national health system. This measure has proved its utility during the pandemic.
The Philippines with one of the largest populations of migrant workers in the world, repatriated over 200,000 distressed and stranded Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) and Overseas Filipinos (OFs) when the pandemic hit, and brought to life its approach of ‘high-tech, low-touch’. Existing tech platforms and databases were used as well as social media to share information with migrants in need of support across the world.
As individuals and organizations in localities across the globe mobilize to support those displaced by war, conflict, and climate disasters, meeting immediate needs of migrants and refugees is critical. At the same time, building the infrastructure needed to support and engage migrants and broader communities in the long term is essential to ensure strong life outcomes beyond the initial welcoming period.
The UN Secretary-General launched in March 2022, the Early Warnings for All initiative which called for every person on Earth to be protected by early warning systems within five years by 2027.
In November 2022, the UN Secretary-General launched at COP27 an Executive Action Plan to implement the initiative and designated as the co-leads the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).
It Takes A Community (ITAC) is an international, multi-stakeholder, social media communications campaign showcasing the positive impact that migration can have on communities, thus contributing to international efforts to promote social cohesion, combat xenophobia and discrimination of migrants, and promote managed migration. ITAC emerged from Canada’s co-leadership of the Global Forum on Migration and Development’s (GFMD) Working Group on Public Narratives on Migration, along with Ecuador and the GFMD Mayors Mechanism.
The overarching goal of the Making Migration Safe for Women programme, implemented by UN Women, is to ensure that migration is safe for women migrating from, into and through Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali and Niger and international norms and standards for protecting and promoting migrant women’s rights are strengthened.
The “Legal Empowerment of Migrants” project funded by the European Union and implemented by Enabel in partnership with the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry delegated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans residing there foreigner, responsible for Moroccans living abroad (MCMRE) whose prerogatives were transferred in 2021 to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (MAEC)/department of migration affairs began at the end of 2018 and will be implemented until October 2022.
The Global Programme “Shaping development-oriented migration” (MEG) assists partner countries in leveraging the benefits of regular migration and engaging diaspora for sustainable development.
Working on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the MEG is active in up to 15 partner countries around the globe. It contributes towards implementing the GCM and is part of a comprehensive approach to migration and development. The MEG contributes to the following objectives:
Established by the UN Network on Migration in May 2019, the Fund is governed by a diverse and inclusive Steering Committee and administered by the UN Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office.
Committed to safe, orderly, and regular migration, the Migration Multi-Partner Trust Fund supports the adoption and implementation of the Global Compact for Migration to encourage the uptake of migration approaches that benefit communities of origin, transit, and destination, as well as migrants.